Introduction

    I’m not a big fan of introductions. They tend to be written by Literary Fellas, little hoity-toity guys who have spent way too much time in school and not enough in the real world. They tend to be compacted little academic discussions, going on and on about “the dialytic nature of the writer’s work” and the “postmodern sublime mixed with a Pynchonesque sensibility,” big phrases that go completely over my head and reinforce the idea we all have that introductions were never meant to be read in the first place.
    I first met Janet oh these lo six months ago now. We were introduced by a mutual friend, Lisa Hemminger, and the first thing I noticed was that Janet seemed to be late from something and kind of pissed off. The second thing I noticed was that she was the author of “Close Cover Before Striking,” a nifty-looking book I had just read a review of in the last Chicago Books in Review, and had been thinking of buying anyway. I chalked the incident up to the fate it was meant to be, scraped together some dead presidents and took a couple of her books home that night.
    Janet’s one of those writers who I do not have a lot of experiences with -- a political poet who can, nonetheless, manage to convey their information to you by slowly slipping under your skin, in a way that’s so subtle that you don’t even notice it until they are suddenly there and you are yelling, “Get out! Get out!” The best of Janet’s work has this way of being deliberately slippery and ambiguous -- the entire time you’re reading it, you’re never sure if the point she is making is being said from her own real-world experiences and that it’s good to be thinking that way... or if it’s being written as the voice of the opponent, warning us that this is NOT the way we should be thinking. After grappling with the piece for a bit, re-reading it in the tub while you’re taking a long hot bath, you start to realize that maybe that is her point -- that, just like real life, political and fiery opinions are not as simple as just deciding one day that you’re going to feel that way. Humanity is a split creature -- we, all of us, both as individuals and as a mob, have the capacity for acts of complete good and complete evil, both residing in our bones at any given time. And even as we are doing what we know to be good, even as we are thinking and acting in a way that should be the nice, liberal, artistic attitude that we all embody, there are still pesky little questions lurking underneath. Complex questions. Questions that we can’t so easily answer, yet completely contradict that nice, liberal, artistic attitude that we all try to embody. Much of Janet’s work expresses this conflict implicitly, never deciding for you what the right response should be or even what Janet’s personal opinion is, but simply presenting it to you as an example of what is going on in all of our lives right now. And really, what is the definition of good poetry but a document which presents a fun-house mirror on what is happening in our own lives?
    You shouldn’t get me wrong -- Janet’s work is not all bubble-bubble, toil and trouble. She writes much about the very things that I tend to write about -- love, lost love, pathetic gestures acted out in the name of love. She also writes about proms, about high school minimum wage jobs, about making fun of yourself for your beliefs. To quote my friend Greg Gillam, she describes the “small, quiet moments” that are the mark of our lives as young artists in Chicago at the turn of the millennium. And this is something that I am simply a sucker for.
    I took Janet’s books home that night and over the course of a week got completely sucked in. She has this way of doing that, you know. I was living, breathing, and sleeping Janet Kuypers that week, and it was a great world to be in. She even inspired a political poem from me, my first, where I quickly realized how bad I am at it, why I’d never written one before, and how much even more a difficult process it is than Janet’s apparent ease at it lets on. By the end of that week, my awe of Janet had been confirmed, and it will remain there in my heart for the rest of my life.
    Well, we’re nearing the end of the introduction, where you can finally head onward and upward towards the whole reason why you bought this book in the first place -- to read the writer’s work. Before I lose you for good, though, let me give you a simple warning about what you are about to read. Be careful. No matter what your instinct, don’t get sucked into the book for hours at a time. Try not to let the book hold sway over your life.
    Because, like I said... if you let her, Janet Kuypers will rock your ass.

Jason Pettus
15 September 1997

Pettus is the author of five novels (including Dreaming of Laura Ingalls, published by GAD Publishing Co.) and contributes regularly to the alternative press, including Ben Is Dead, Tunnel Rat, Pucker Up, and MOOjuice. In addition, he is a champion of the Uptown Poetry Slam, hosted by Marc Smith, and recently placed second in the nation at the 1997 National Poetry Slam. His spoken word performances have been featured, among other places, at the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, National Public Radio, and the Canadian Broadcasting Network.

kuypers

this poem Copyright Janet Kuypers.

OEUVRE

Janet Kuypers
http://www.JanetKuypers.com
JKuypers@scars.tv
ISBN# 1-8982200-22-1
$16.22

Scars Publications and Design
Editor@scars.tv
http://scars.tv

in conjunction with Penny Dreadful Press
and assistance from Freedom & Strength Foundation, Troy Press, Hawthorne Press & Dried Roses Press

first edition
printed in the United States of America

copyright @ 2004 Scars Publications and Design
writings @ 1979-2004 Janet Kuypers
book design @ 1998-2004 Scars Publications and Design

This book, as a whole, is fiction, and no correlation should be made between events in the book and events in real life. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the publisher.

Information about past books is available upon request through Scars Publications and Design. Materials from the literary magazines “Children, Churches and Daddies” and “Down in the Dirt” are available on line at http://scars.tv, as are .mp3 files, .ra files, .aif files, .au files, .wav files .mov and mpeg files of Kuypers, both reading her work and singing with three sets of musicians.

Oeuvre is published through Scars Publications and Design, whose publisher is a member/minister through the Universal Life Church. Scars Publications and Design, the logo and associated graphics @ 1979 - 2004. All rights reserved. Kuypers and Scars Publications and Design welcome your comments, tips, compliments or complaints. Direct all comments and suggestions to the e-mail addresses listed above.

The definition of oeuvre (the works of a writer, painter, or the like, taken as a whole) is from the Websters Unabridged 2001 Dictionary.